Letters to the Editor
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When children want children
An interesting books was written on this subject quite sometime ago, called "When Children Want Children" by Leon Dash (a former Wash. Post reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner). Its an interesting and incredibly intimate picture of young women who became pregnant because they wanted to.
You can find excerpts at Google books.
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Likely several factors
In the LA Times report, they noted that California's rate only went up 1.6% overall and that California refuses Federal money for Abstinence Only (AO) programs. So this would be support for the theory that greater reliance on AO is one problem and that there are some other factors, probably economic (less funding for programs overall, less ability to buy contraception, despair that yields more "bad" behavior, etc).
Still, one of the things that I don't think many of the supporters of AO programs realize is that the program doesn't have to be non-effective or detrimental to be a problem just less effective than current interventions. I think many people look at AO and think, "Well, why can't we do this as well as part of an overall strategy?" But, to the extent that policy increases the use of less effective programs over the more effective ones, overall success rates will decrease. It would be like the Federal government requiring doctors to use only penicillin for a percentage of infections they treat. You can bet under such a policy, morbidity and mortality would increase even though it is the case that penicillin is undoubtedly effective at treating infection.
So if you are wondering why many public health officials are so wary of the abstinence only programs, it has nothing to do with being against religiously-based interventions per se but rather about the potential for increased difficulty in meeting their goals.
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Teen pregnancy: It's never leeeeeeeeeeft
I'll never forget a last class I took in highschool, 20 years ago now. The name of the class was deceptively different from what was actually taught, which is how I ended up in it to fulfill some last requirements.
But essentially it was "Life for Dummies"--how to pay rent, save money, and generally not do really really stupid things with your life choices whether you were or were not going on to college. One of the really stupid things that was covered at length was getting pregnant while clueless (as in teenaged, with no clear concept of how to raise, provide for, on and on and on).
Here's the punchline. It was a very small class--about 7 females and 2 males (another guy and me). After all this material was presented to us--which included extensive testimonies from former-teen moms who detailed what their motivations and thinking were for getting pregnant so early and why they were dumb but too young to know it--in the discussion afterward, it came out that five of the seven females were, in fact, early in their own pregnancies.
All by 'choice', and intending to bear the child and all its responsibilities solo. This is weeks from graduation, incidentally.
When asked why, they all, to a girl, trotted out all the exact same bankrupt dumbass reasons that the teen moms we had just heard interviewed did.
I mean, they could have made the same video we just watched if they'd had a camera in the room. It was more than astonishing; it was surreal. Definitely one of those "I learned a lot about humans when" moments for me as a youth.
As a side note, in my graduating class of 400+, I knew of all of one girl who had gotten pregnant early enough to be dealing with the actual baby while still attending highschool. About ten years later I was re-visiting my hometown, and noted that the highschool now had an actual daycare center dedicated to the offspring of the students.
So...yeah. Don't think it's anything less than human nature you're up against with this problem. Isn't it usually?
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When children want children, Part II
In my lifetime of observing females become pregnant I have noticed the following: The girls/women most likely to become pregnant when it is inappropriate (due to youth, financial instability, lack of interest from the father, etc.) are girls/women who feel powerless and/or unloved.
No matter what race, nationality, or economic group they inhabit, they are likely to believe, either consciously or unconsciously, that an adorable baby (with an equally adorable name) will fill the terrible void they feel in their lives. Of course they aren't sorry about becoming pregnant; they think the baby is going to provide them with all the love and attention they seek and aren't getting from the family members, peer group, and men who are closest to them. (NOTE: This applies as much to superstar pop divas as it does to the average American schoolgirl.)
If you want to halt teen pregnancy, LISTEN TO GIRLS. Make them feel worthy and appreciated, not invisible. Encourage them to have aspirations. Also, insist that your sons treat their girlfriends with respect and true caring. A little genuine sex education (from someone who doesn't have their head up their ass) wouldn't hurt either.
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Statistics
The other problem with the statistics presented is that they lack a fundamental element of context. Are we to presume that all teen pregancies are unplanned and unwanted? We all of the pregnancies to unmarried women? I am pro-choice and in favor of comprehensive sex education, but just because young men and women are making choices about birth control and abortion that are diffent than in the past -- we can't presume that they are making the wrong choice given their particular circumstances.
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Just one small thing ...
Eighteen and nineteen year olds are not "children". Why are they even included in the survey?
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RE: Just One Small Thing...
Appoggiatura wrote: Eighteen and nineteen year olds are not "children". Why are they even included in the survey?
Actually, the National Institutes of Health (and I assume at least some other Federal agencies) define "children" as being those under 21.
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ahem.
"If abstinence-only programs are what has caused this, can they please call the anti-smoking campaign, the anti-obesity folks, and those fine people who are trying to get Americans to consider the environment in their lifestyle choices, and tell them how they managed to be so darn effective in their message?"
No need to call. The anti-campaigns you mention use actual medical knowledge and objective, scientific-method-backed data to make their cases.
The abstinence-only folks use the fear of God. Science? Facts? Accuracy? Truth? Not so much.
Also, the anti-abstinence groups tend to treat teens as naughty children, and the other groups assume their audience can behave like responsible adults.
"Course, that could be coincidence.